


Janto Wedding

by This_killed_me_126_times



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Aliens, Fluff, M/M, Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:08:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/This_killed_me_126_times/pseuds/This_killed_me_126_times
Summary: This is how I think it would have happened if Jack and Ianto had gotten married. The story goes from the idea of proposing, all the way to their honeymoon.
Relationships: Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Kudos: 54





	1. The Idea

**Author's Note:**

> This is set sometime after something blue (although Owen isn't dead)

Ianto smiled to himself as he watched Jack conduct their morning briefing with practiced efficiency. It was completely unfair that he managed to look this hot whilst doing such a mundane task, although, in Ianto’s mind anyway, he looked hot no matter what he was doing. Jack caught Ianto’s eye and winked at him before continuing on with the work for that day. Ianto looked away, unable to keep from blushing, while the others rolled their eyes.  
“Do they have to flirt right in front of us like that?” Owen muttered to Gwen, who tried to hold back her giggles.  
Jack looked over at him, “it’s not my fault that Ianto is so gorgeous; you should be thankful it isn’t a whole lot worse,” he paused, pretending to think, “although I’m sure I could do that for you.”  
Owen mimed retching, and Tosh spoke up, noticing just how red Ianto had become.  
“Can you just tell us what we need to do today, Jack. I think Ianto might explode if you continue.”  
“Right, sorry Ianto,” Jack chuckled, “back to work. Tosh, I need you to pull up the files for the Weevil case, there’s a couple of loose ends that still need to be tied up. Owen, I need the autopsy for the alien we picked up last night, so we can figure out what to do with it. And Ianto?”  
Ianto looked back up at him, and really, honestly, tried to listen, especially given his previous embarrassment, but still managed to somehow get distracted, his eyes wandering down from Jack’s face, and didn’t hear a word until Jack snapped his fingers in his face.  
“Ianto?”, Jack said, grinning, “I know I’m hot, but you still need to pay attention.”  
This time Ianto didn’t even try to prevent anyone from seeing his face flush pink once again, but he attempted to keep his composure and said, “Yes, sir.”  
“Can you do the coffee run? We’re all dying for a caffeine fix.”  
“Of course, sir,” Ianto stood up and walked to the little kitchen, still trying to gather himself back into some sort of composure, which was distinctly easier when Jack wasn’t in his line of sight.  
Jack looked after him, smiling to himself. Ianto always became so formal when he was flustered, and Jack was very good at making him flustered. It was one of his favourite hobbies. His loving smile faded as he headed over to his desk to tackle the seemingly endless pile of paperwork he’d managed to acquire.

Jack stared at the page in front of him. It was full of demands from UNIT, but he couldn’t take any of it in. He’d told them to keep any such paperwork under six pages, which surprisingly, they had done… by shrinking the font until it fit, making it even more of a nightmare to read. He’d have to rescind that order soon, because there was no way he could get through any more papers like this. He’d only managed read three pages of it and was already feeling a headache coming on from straining to read the small print, and he still hadn’t had any coffee. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Jack jumped, thankful for any intervention that provided relief from paperwork. He hurried to call, “Come in!”  
“I’ve brought you your coffee, Jack,” said Ianto, coming in and visibly wincing at the mess on Jack’s desk.  
“Ianto, you’re my hero.”  
Ianto smiled and put the coffee down on the desk, using a government form as a coaster, as there was no actual desk space to be found, let alone the many coasters that Ianto himself had put there, “well, I’d rather be making coffee than doing paperwork.”  
Jack chuckled with feeling, smacking the UNIT paper down on the desk with a vengeance, “me too.”  
“Unfortunately, no one will drink the shit that you make,” replied Ianto, with a little smirk, remembering the one time a very sleep deprived Jack tried to make coffee and somehow made it taste bad enough that even Owen refused to drink it.  
Jack laughed again, “you do have a point. I supposed I’m stuck with the paperwork then. I think the rest of the team would riot if we tried to switch jobs.”  
“Indeed. I don’t think either of us would last a week.”  
Ianto gave him a quick kiss and a smile before going back to the kitchen to produce another vat of coffee, essential with the amount the team somehow managed to consume.  
Jack gazed at him through the window, somehow the paperwork didn’t seem so daunting when he had Ianto and a good cup of coffee, of course, those things generally went hand in hand. He thought about what would happen if he and Ianto did switch jobs. True, the Welshman wasn’t a natural leader, but Jack was sure he’d get the paperwork done in a trice. He, on the other hand, would be murdered by the rest of the team before the day was out if he tried Ianto’s job. They relied on coffee far too much for that to work.  
He was so deep in thought, he didn’t even notice when Tosh popped her head round the door, when there was no response to her knocking.  
“Jack, Jack!” she had to call, before he realised what was happening.  
“What is it, what’s going on?” He asked, only half paying attention, because most of his brain was still, as usual, preoccupied with Ianto.  
“Owen’s found something in that alien, and he thinks you should take a look.”  
That was enough to snap Jack back into reality, and definitely had nothing to do with him not wanting to finish his paperwork. He practically flung himself down the stairs and towards the medical bay.

Soon enough, everyone was gathered around Owen, and the half-dissected alien on the autopsy table in front of him. They were all looking worried, waiting to hear what Owen had found.  
“Turns out, our little friend here had one last trick up his sleeve. When you shot him, Gwen, you hit this.” He held up a bloody mass, waving it in front of their faces.  
Gwen gestured indignantly, beginning to pace nervously, “It would be hard to miss, it’s flipping enormous! Why’s it important anyway?”  
“Well, when ruptured, it sends out a flurry of nanoparticles hell bent on destroying the thing that killed their host.”  
Gwen stopped abruptly, going as white as a sheet, “does that mean they’re after me?” she said, as calmly as she could, but her eyes, wide open with panic, negated her façade.  
“Fortunately, no,” said Owen, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “They’re not particularly developed creatures, and not used to guns. These creatures kill with their bare hands,” he gestured to the long sword-like side to their arms, “so most likely they’d be after the bullet.”  
“But you said that extracted the bullet yesterday, surely you can just lock it away, and then these nanoparticles won’t be able to reach it?” asked Jack, folding his arms.  
“In theory, yes, but they’re not the most diligent nanoparticles, and if they don’t find what they’re looking for, they will begin to destroy everything in sight.”  
“Can’t we give them the bullet?” questioned Tosh, “we could drop it off where Gwen shot it?”  
Owen waved his hand dismissively, “they won’t still be there, and they’ll be so spread out, it’ll be impossible to find them all.”  
“How long do we have?” asked Jack.  
Owen shrugged, looking worried, “a week? Max.”  
Jack nodded seriously, already calculating a plan in his head, “better get to work then.”

Everyone headed to their work stations, looking serious and focussed, preparing themselves for a week of incessant work. All except for Ianto, who slipped out to the nearby Chinese without anyone noticing. If it was going to be an all-nighter, then they would need sustenance, thankfully, he already knew their Chinese order, and, to be honest, they got it so often, that the Chinese place probably did as well.

Half an hour later, Jack was searching the hub, from the greenhouse to the depths of the archives. He wanted some coffee, but couldn’t find Ianto anywhere, and didn’t dare to touch the coffee machine without his express permission. He feared the wrath of Ianto more than he wanted coffee. He went all around the hub twice, even down to the showers, in case Ianto was cleaning them again, but there was no one there. Eventually he stopped next to Tosh’s desk, where she was trying to track all of the nanoparticles from the alien.  
“Have you seen Ianto anywhere?” he asked as nonchalantly as he could, trying to keep the rising panic out of his voice.  
“No,” answered Tosh, too distracted by her computer to even bother to look at him, “but I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably just gone to get food, or coffee grounds, or something. He’s the only one who knows when we run out of things like that.”  
Jack nodded, trying to feel reassured. Ianto was an adult, there was no sense in him worrying like this. Besides, there wasn’t even any real danger this evening, so there was no reason to be worried. Ianto could protect himself, Jack had made sure of that, but even so, he couldn’t help the anxious feeling twisting in his stomach, and wished that Ianto would just come back, so he could properly focus on the real, actual, problem that they were having, instead of imaginary ones, that nevertheless filled him with more dread than the nanoparticles. After all, he’d had to face the end of the world many times, but, in recent years, it had only ever been with Ianto by his side. Now, without Ianto, it felt like a part of him was missing.  
He sat up in his office, pretending to be working on the never-ending paperwork (which had the audacity to remain undone, even with the end of the world imminent), but spending most of his time staring out of his window at the cog door, hoping that Ianto would walk through at any minute.  
Eventually, he did, and Jack was down beside him in a moment, practically falling down the stairs in his hurry, and immediately pulled him in for a kiss. Ianto was taken slightly by surprised, not expecting to be set upon in this way, but willingly kissed Jack back, rather encumbered by the bags in his hands. Soon enough, Jack pulled away, looking down in slight embarrassment, or as embarrassed as Jack ever got.  
“What was that for?” asked Ianto, walking to the kitchen as he smiled, before putting all but one of the bags on the table, “I only went out to get Chinese; I figured we weren’t going to be seeing out beds anytime soon..”  
Jack laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, and still mostly looking at the floor, “I don’t know, I guess I get a bit anxious when I don’t know where you are. I’m so used to having you around.”  
Ianto chucked, “idiot,” before calling to the others, “there’s Chinese in the kitchen, help yourselves!”  
There were answering shouts of appreciation, and a general cacophony of noise, as the rest of the team rushed to get to the food.  
Ianto looked back at Jack, wincing slightly at the noise, “can we go to your office for a moment, before we get mobbed?”  
“Of course,” Jack replied, and took him gratefully by the hand.

In Jack’s office, Ianto put the final bag down on the desk, on top of all of the paperwork of course, (Ianto made a mental note to either bully Jack into cleaning it, or do it himself, when the world was no longer ending).  
“I knew it would be a long few nights, and, if you sleep at all, you’ll probably want to do it here, so you can keep an eye on things and monitor any changes. So, I brought some of our stuff over from my flat, because you don’t have anything here anymore. Do you want me to put it in your old room?”  
Jack couldn’t do anything but nod. His heart felt like it was about to explode from all of the love he felt for Ianto; after so many years in determined loneliness, it felt good to be cared for again, and the fact that Ianto had done it without a word from him, made it even more special. For the first time in far too many years, he felt unconditionally loved, and he never wanted it to end.

Ianto was right, it was a long night. The longest they’d had in a while. There was so much to do to try and at least contain it, before the nanoparticles got beyond the scope of Torchwood. They had to research the species, Tosh was trying to adapt one of her computer programmes to find out where the nanoparticles were, and how many, and Owen was still conducting a very thorough autopsy to make sure there were no more nasty surprises, and to see if there was anything that could help them.  
It was a long, intense, night of work, and they’d all given up on seeing their beds much before dawn. They had had a couple of breakthroughs though, so it wasn’t an entirely fruitless night, and that spurred them on to keep working – with help from the gallons of coffee that Ianto was producing. Tosh managed to set up a computer programme to track them, and found that they were still all within Cardiff, and Gwen located a piece of alien tech in the archives that could contain them and keep them in Cardiff.  
As soon as they found this out, they all went off to different corners of the city, apart from Tosh, who was guiding them with the help of her computer programme, to make sure they were all contained, even one of them could cause quite considerable damage if left unchecked, and they created a barrier around the whole of Cardiff, and the nanoparticles with it.

They didn’t get back till nearly four in the morning, and by that time, everyone was dead on their feet, so Jack sent them home to get some well-deserved sleep, with strict instructions to be back at nine the next morning. They were still on a tight schedule after all, and a few hours was all he could spare. Still, he knew that the team understood, and as soon as he was able to, they would all have a few days off to make up for it.  
The rest of the team slowly left the Hub, yawning, and grateful that their beds weren’t far away, till Jack and Ianto were the only two left.  
Ianto smiled sleepily at Jack, “I guess we should get ready for bed then.”  
Jack nodded, putting his arm round him to stop the exhausted Ianto from falling over. Ianto lent into him, barely conscious enough to climb down the ladder into Jack’s old rooms.  
Jack carefully helped Ianto undress and get into his pyjamas, being as gentle as he could, whilst Ianto propped himself up against the wall. Being from the 51st century, Jack needed significantly less sleep than the rest of the team, although being awake for 20 hours meant even he was starting to flag. Still, Ianto was in a much worse state than him, and he didn’t think that he would successfully manage to get himself ready for bed, and Jack didn’t mind helping. He was glad to do even something this small for the man who had done so much for him. He even got his toothbrush ready for him, when Ianto was standing in front of the mirror with a gormless expression on his face.  
Eventually, Ianto was completely ready for bed, it took a little longer than expected, seeing as Jack had to help him to do pretty much everything, but he was now tucked up in Jack’s old bed, wrapped in a thick duvet.  
Jack quickly got into his own pyjamas (a habit he had adopted during lazy Sunday mornings with Ianto), brushed his teeth, and got into bed beside Ianto. Ianto was already practically asleep, but still snuggled sleepily up to Jack and put his head on his shoulder.  
Jack smiled soppily at him, and said quietly to himself, almost under his breath, “this feels just like the old days. I never thought that things would change so much. For so many years, this was my only sanctuary, I didn’t really have a life out of Torchwood,” he chuckled softly, “I guess I still don’t, but you’ve made my life more worth living than it has been in a long time. I love you Ianto Jones.”  
As he lay there, looking at the sleeping Welshman, who was just starting to drool, he knew that there was no way he could keep living his life holding everyone at arms-length. It had been too late for that long ago. Before he’d even realised it, Ianto Jones had wormed his way into his heart and stayed there. He was willing to get hurt for Ianto, and he wanted everyone to know it.  
He thought back to Gwen’s wedding, not too long ago, and had a sudden, burning desire to commit himself, formally and legally, to Ianto for the rest of his stupid stretched out life. This was a feeling that had been creeping up on him for the past few months, and he knew that it was something he wouldn’t be able to shake.  
Deep down, he knew that it would end in heartbreak and despair, his love always did, but he could be irrevocably happy till then, and maybe, just maybe, by some miracle, this time things could be different. He knew that no matter what, he was going to marry Ianto Jones, as soon as he possible could. With this comforting, although slightly scary, thought, he kissed the top of Ianto’s head, and drifted off to sleep, content.


	2. The Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack proposes to Ianto, but not quite in the way that he planned

The next morning, Jack and Ianto woke up at eight to the incessant buzzing of Ianto’s alarm clock. Neither of them felt much better after their snatched few hours of sleep, and the temptation to roll over and go back to sleep was almost overwhelming, but they had far too much work to do, and no time to lounge about in bed.  
Jack flailed blindly in the direction of the alarm clock, eventually managing to turn it off and almost knocking it off the little bedside table in the process. He would have closed his eyes again, just for a moment, with no intention of falling back asleep, if Ianto, who had somehow already gotten out of bed, hadn’t pulled on his arm to get him up.  
Jack clambered out of bed, yawning, his arms held up in mock surrender, “I’m getting up, I’m getting up.”  
Ianto smiled at him, rolling his eyes, “why don’t you go and have a shower to wake yourself up, I’ll get breakfast for us.”  
Jack nodded sleepily, still not fully awake, giving Ianto a quick kiss before heading down to the showers.  
Jack almost slipped on the tiles as he went down the stairs to the showers, and immediately felt much more awake. There was far too much to do today for him to die. He turned the water on, and the warmth made his eyes feel heavy.  
Suddenly, the water ran cold, and he jolted awake. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but it was just so warm and soothing…  
Hurriedly, he shut the water off, dried himself, and pulled on his clothes, checking the time as he did so. He couldn’t have been asleep for more than twenty minutes, but still, Ianto must be wondering where he was.

In the kitchen, he found Ianto, showered and dressed immaculately in his usual three-piece suit, humming to himself, as he cooked bacon and egg sandwiches over the stove. Jack stared in amazement at how.. awake Ianto seemed. Even though he must have been at least as tired as Jack, he looked no worse than yesterday. Jack hastily tried to flatten the mess of hair on his own head, but gave up when it didn’t seem to want to cooperate. The only tell-tale signs that Ianto was indeed flagging, were the frequent stifled yawns, and the way he leant on any nearby surface. To a casual onlooker, it looked natural, but Jack knew him far too well to fall for that; he knew that the surfaces were the only way that he was actually able to keep himself upright.  
Jack shook his head to pull himself out of his daydream and wandered over to Ianto, putting his arms loosely around his waist.  
“That smells amazing,” he said, sniffing appreciatively.  
Ianto chuckled, “I thought that if we were going to have another long day, the least I could do was make sure we had a substantial breakfast. Who knows when we’ll have time to eat another proper meal, it might not be until tomorrow. And we can’t have you only eating take-away now, can we sir?”  
Jack felt that warm, comforting, feeling fill his stomach again, and he just stood there, with his head resting on Ianto’s shoulder, happy and content, even with the imminent end of the world looming over them.   
After a few minutes in comfortable silence, Ianto wriggled out of Jack’s arms and began plating up the food. There seemed to be enough to feed at least 6 people, but he split it up between the two plates.  
Jack raised an eyebrow at him.  
“I meant what I said, we need to have a good meal.”  
“Right,” Jack agreed, “and here I was, thinking you’d made enough for the rest of the team.”  
Ianto didn’t reply, just putting the plates down on the little table, and there was silence as they hungrily devoured the sandwiches. Somehow they managed to finish them all. Jack blamed it on Ianto’s fabulous cooking.  
Ianto looked at his watch, “the others should be here pretty soon, it’s almost nine o’clock.”  
Jack nodded, slightly more awake now that he’d had some food, “yes, I hope they’ll be ready to work. We have to figure out a way to destroy these nanoparticles.”  
“We’ll find something, we always do,” Ianto smiled happily at him.

By nine, both of the girls had arrived, but they were still waiting for Owen.  
Jack tapped his foot impatiently, “just get to work,” he said eventually, “you know what you need to be doing.”  
Owen arrived only five minutes later, started making his excuse, before he stopped abruptly, smelling the bacon Ianto had been cooking earlier.  
“Did you make bacon?” he asked, immediately perking up, and looking around for the food.   
“Yes,” replied Ianto, “but just for me and Jack. I’m afraid there’s none left, unless you want to make your own?”  
Ianto smirked as Owen trudged over to his desk, muttering, “bastard,” under his breath.

The whole morning was spent feverishly working. It seemed as though every time they moved a couple of steps forward, they got knocked back another ten steps. It was frustrating, but that was what Torchwood did, and they’d been in many situations like this before, so they just kept their heads down, and kept working. The only one who wasn’t working with as much intensity as he should, or normally was, was Jack. He tried, but the minute he started working on anything, his head became filled with thoughts and plans for proposing to Ianto. It was as though he’d opened the floodgates, and now there was no turning back. Logically, his brain knew that it was of secondary importance and they had other things to be focussing on, but his heart seemed to disagree. It all felt vaguely surreal. He’d have to go and buy a ring, although he almost certainly wouldn’t have time until they’d sorted out these nanoparticles, and find a time to buy it without arousing Ianto’s suspicions. And somehow manage to keep the ring in a place where Ianto wouldn’t find it when he was organising. He’d have to figure out when and how to propose, things were a bit different now to the last time he did that. On top of all of that, he’d have to somehow keep it a secret from everyone, he didn’t trust the rest of the team not to inadvertently let Ianto know, which was going to be the hardest part, because he wanted to tell everyone anytime he saw them.

Sometime during the afternoon, they’d lost count of the hours, Tosh called to everyone in excitement. They hurried over to her desk, peering over her shoulder at the document she’d pulled up with interest.  
“What is it?” asked Jack.  
“It’s a kind of homing device,” Tosh began to explain, whilst bringing up other articles of research onto her screen, “it attracts the nanoparticles, trapping them in this chamber where you can incinerate them.”  
“How do we know we’ve got all of them?” interrupted Gwen, “you said that even one could cause a lot of damage, so we have to be sure.”  
Tosh waited patiently for her to finish, “as I was going to say, this piece of technology isn’t that advanced, so it won’t be able to tell if it has all of the nanoparticles or not, but, if I could download my computer programme onto this device,” she held up a small screen, “and connect it to the other technology, then that could tell us.”  
“Well that sounds perfect,” said Owen, “now, where is it?”  
“There is a slight issue with that. I don’t know,” replied Tosh apologetically.  
“We’d better find it then,” said Jack, “everyone, get to work, you know the drill. We don’t have long left.”

The next few days, and nights, were spent scouring every bit of the internet, government files, UNIT files, and even old newspapers, to try and find any clue as to where the technology might be. Eventually, piecing together all of the fragmented information they’d managed to acquire, they pinpointed the location.  
“Does it have to be buried in a graveyard?” Owen complained, “nothing good ever comes from digging up parts of a graveyard. Haven’t any of you watched a single horror film?”  
“You know, surprisingly enough, Owen, I’m more concerned with the imminent end of the world than disrespecting the dead,” replied Jack, “and we need this technology.”  
Owen groaned, “we can’t just keep calling it ‘the technology’,” he turned to Ianto, “can’t you come up with a name?”  
Ianto thought for a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Cathartical Antiparticle.”  
Owen shrugged, considering for a moment, “not your worst,” he said, clapping Ianto on the shoulder.  
Jack tapped his foot impatiently, “are you finished messing around? We have actual work to be doing, and I’d quite like to finish digging up the grave before it gets light.”  
Owen nodded, almost getting hit by the shovel that Gwen threw at him, “digging up a grave at night in the dark. Even better.”  
Jack grinned, “Let’s go grave robbing.”

They arrived at the graveyard, Tosh carefully scanning the area to make sure there were no nasty surprises, human or alien. The coast was clear. They climbed out of the SUV, each with a shovel, and split up, methodically combing the graveyard for the name “Jennifer Mykel”.  
Many hours later, they’d been through practically the entire graveyard, and were almost ready to give up, when Gwen gave an excited shout, “I’ve found her!”  
The others ran over to her, pleased that they might be able to get home before dawn.   
Jack wiped some of the grime off of the headstone and read, “Jennifer Mykel, beloved daughter and general troublemaker,” he chuckled, “I don’t think the person who made this liked her very much.”  
“What do we care?” said Owen, “can we just start digging already?”  
They began to dig, all except Tosh, who was continuing to scan the area, so they wouldn’t be caught unawares.  
It took longer than they expected, but eventually, they hit wood.  
“Tosh,” called Jack, wiping the sweat off his face, “can you scan the coffin and make sure there’s nothing nasty in it. The signal should be able to reach now that we’ve cleared the earth off the top.”  
Tosh nodded and began the scan.  
“I can see the… cathartical antiparticle-” she nodded at Ianto, “-but there’s nothing else, you should be good.”  
“Thanks,” said Jack, and they started prising the lid off.  
Inside there was only one thing. A small metal cylinder. There wasn’t even a body.  
“I don’t know whether to be glad or not,” said Owen, “I didn’t think you meant there was literally nothing else in there.”  
“It probably incinerated her,” said Tosh, “we should be careful with it.”  
Ianto picked it up gingerly, carefully putting it in a labelled bag.  
“If it incinerated the dead person for no reason, it really feels like we shouldn’t be using it,” he said.  
Jack shrugged, “what choice do we have?”  
“Maybe the woman was covered in these nanoparticles?” said Gwen hopefully.  
“Maybe,” agreed Tosh, but none of them believed it for a minute.

Back at the hub, Jack gently and carefully locked the metal tube away in a fireproof safe in his office.  
“Go home and get some sleep. Be back here at eight tomorrow,” he looked at his watch, it was four in the morning,” I guess that’s today, but I want to get this sorted, and we don’t have many hours left.”  
The team nodded sleepily and headed out of the cog door. They would hopefully manage to grab a few hours of sleep, but it was better than none at all, and the prospect of ending this threat tomorrow spurred them on, if only because it meant that they would be able to get a full night’s rest.  
Alone in the hub, Jack and Ianto walked towards the kitchen.  
“Do you want me to cook something?” Ianto asked.  
Jack shook his head, picking up some of the left-over pizza Ianto had ordered in earlier, “I’ll just have some of this, I don’t think I could be bothered to wait even for your cooking at the moment. Once this is all over, we’ll do something nice. Maybe go to that new Indian?”  
Ianto smiled at him, “That would be nice. I’m going to go to bed, come down when you’re ready.” He gave Jack a quick kiss, “I love you.”  
Jack grinned, “I love you too, Cariad.”  
Jack watched Ianto walk away, and wondered if he knew how true those words were. These last few days had been so hard; trying to keep his secret. It had been quite a while since he’d bothered trying to hide anything from Ianto. He was just too perceptive. Hopefully, after tomorrow, he’d be able to go ring shopping, and finally make his true feelings known. Ianto deserved more than Jack could give him, but by some miracle, he’d decided that Jack was enough, and that made Jack happier than he’d been since he realised he was immortal. He just hoped Ianto would say yes. There was no guarantee, of course, but there was no point getting worried about that, it wouldn’t change the fact that he wanted to propose.

The next morning, there was a mad rush to get everything done. All of the team wanted to finish this as soon as possible, so they could go home and sleep for as long as they wanted, and save the world, of course.  
They loaded the car up with weapons, but there was some slightly heating debating going on over the best way to transport the ‘cathartical antiparticle’, as it was now commonly referred to.  
“You saw what it had done to that girl,” said Owen, gesturing wildly, “we can’t exactly just shove it in our pockets!”  
“We can’t just let it roll around in the back of the SUV either!” Gwen retaliated, “We have to know exactly where it is at all times.”  
“Well you can carry it then! You have the unstable incinerator in your pocket! But I’m not getting in the car with it! If you want to go to an early grave, be my guest!”  
Jack stepped between them, trying to deescalate the situation, “we’re going to leave it in the fireproof safe until we get to the exact moment that it’s needed, and after we’ve used it, it’s going straight back in. Okay?”  
Gwen and Owen were quiet, feeling slightly foolish for arguing when the answer was so simple.  
“I said, okay?”  
They muttered their approval, both looking at the floor.  
“Right,” said Jack, rolling his eyes at Ianto, who tried to hide his laughter with a cough, earning him a glare from Owen, “now that that’s all sorted, shall we go and save the world?”

Soon enough, they’d arrived at Bute Park, which was close enough to the centre of Cardiff for maximum efficiency when trying to get all of the nanoparticles, and they’d unpacked all of their equipment in a quiet corner, away from all of the tourists, of which there were thankfully very few. They didn’t especially want to be responsible for lots of civilian death, and when they were working with something this volatile, they weren’t quite sure what would happen.  
Jack carefully unlocked the fireproof safe and got out the ‘cathartical antiparticle’. He gestured to Gwen to take the safe away and put it with the rest of their equipment in the back of the SUV.  
“I’ll do it,” he said, “just in case anything goes wrong. The rest of you need to stand back, we don’t know how intense this will be. Tosh, can you instruct me?”  
The rest of the team stood back, Ianto with more reluctance than the rest, being pulled away by Owen, while Tosh started to speak.  
“Just hold down that red button on the side, and that will start the homing signal, then, when I say, all of the nanoparticles will be inside, so you can let go, and they will be burnt.”  
Jack nodded, and held down the button. He chuckled, trying to make light of the situation, “Red button? Isn’t that a little cliché?”  
Then he locked eyes with Ianto, and all of his feelings came rushing up again. He knew that he would likely die doing this, and he didn’t think that he could bare the agony of crawling back into life if he didn’t know for certain that Ianto was going to be his forever. So in the heat of the moment he made a split-second decision. He hoped he wouldn’t regret it. Jack took a deep breath.  
“Ianto!” he called, over the roar of the machine.  
“Yes, sir!” Ianto shouted back, slightly confused. What was so important that it couldn’t wait until after they’ve saved the world?  
Jack took another deep breath and shouted, “Ianto Jones, will you marry me?”  
Ianto stood in shock for a moment, trying to process what had just happened, but just as he finally opened his mouth to reply, Tosh yelled, “now!” and Jack took his finger off the button, not daring to wait for Ianto’s answer, both out of fear of the end of the world, and fear of what he might say.  
The explosion was bigger than they had expected. Even from their distance, the entire team was blown backwards onto the, thankfully, thick grass, and Jack was completely lost in the fire and the smoke.  
As soon as the smoke had cleared enough to see, Ianto scrambled up, groaning slightly at all of the bruises that he was sure were already beginning to form, and ran to Jack, tears streaking down his blackened face.  
He sat on the burnt grass, Jacks head cradled in his lap, waiting, waiting for Jack to wake up.  
Eventually, he did.  
Before Jack could say a word, Ianto kissed him.  
When they finally pulled apart, he said smiling, “of course I’ll marry you Jack.”


	3. Ring Buying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Ianto go out to choose engagement rings

The next morning Jack blinked open his eyes to find Ianto already awake and smiling at him. He was glad they were back at Ianto’s flat; the bed was so much more comfortable. How he had survived for so many years on that hard slab at the Hub was beyond him.  
Jack smiled back at him, “good morning, what time is it?”  
“Just gone 11,” Ianto replied, “do you want pancakes for breakfast?”  
Jack nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”  
Ianto laughed, getting out of bed and slinging on his dressing gown before saying, “I’d better make a double mixture then.”  
Jack lay back down in bed for a moment, grinning to himself. He still couldn’t believe the events of the last few days. He was engaged. To Ianto Jones. If he’d known three years ago that the annoying Welsh boy would be the person he would be marrying, he would probably have shot someone’s brains out to be honest, most likely Ianto’s. But now? He couldn’t be happier about it.

Soon delicious pancakey smells drifted towards him, and he heaved himself out of the bed, snatching up his dressing gown from the floor, where it had been hastily abandoned late last night.  
He padded out, towards the kitchen, yawning and stretching as he went, before collapsing onto Ianto from behind, and wrapping his arms around his waist.  
“Careful!” exclaimed Ianto, nearly spilling pancake batter over the floor.  
“Sorry,” muttered Jack, almost incoherently, as he pressed lazy kisses to the side of Ianto’s neck.  
Ianto decided he didn’t really mind. It was nice to be back home with Jack. He never really pegged Jack for a lazy Sunday morning type of a person, but those rapidly became Ianto’s favourite time with him. Missions and excitement were fun, and he certainly enjoyed them, but he also enjoyed feeling like he had a life like a regular person. It had been a very long time since he had felt that. It was even better after a busy mission, when they had whole days like this, because it almost felt like a return to normality. Like a regular couple, taking a day off from their regular jobs. It was their normal life, with a Torchwood twist of course.  
Ianto dished up the towering mountains of perfect pancakes that he’d cooked and set them on the table next to two almost comically large mugs of steaming hot coffee.  
The two men sat down and started eating and for a while, the only sound was the clanking of cutlery.  
Once they were both full, somehow managing to eat their way through all of the pancakes Ianto had cooked, Jack leaned over the table and took Ianto’s hand in his.  
“I meant to get a ring, you know,” he said, smiling a little, “I was going to do it properly. It was going to be romantic, but in the end, I just couldn’t wait. I didn’t want to die again,” he shook his head, looking slightly haunted, “not without knowing that I had you to come back to.”  
“You always had me to come back to,” Ianto said, squeezing his hand.  
“I know, but I wanted it to be…” he paused, searching for the words, “…official.”  
Ianto nodded seriously, then started to grin, “anyway, I liked it.”  
Jack looked at him questioningly, raising his eyebrows.  
“It was very Torchwood, and more importantly, it was very you. I don’t think a normal proposal would have felt quite right. We always have to do something slightly different.”  
Jack laughed loudly, “if nothing else, you’ll remember it.”  
“It was always going to be special, Jack, no matter what you did, because it was a milestone in our relationship. You could have shouted it to me through the toilet door and it would have been special.”  
Jack laughed, “I want to be offended that you would ever think that I would do something like that, but instead I’m glad you feel that way.”  
“Ever since we fought a pterodactyl together, there was something about you that demanded my attention. Walking away has never been an option, even when I tried to hate you for what you did to Lisa.”  
They paused for a moment, although they’d forgiven each other long ago for what happened with Lisa, and the mistakes that they’d both made, it had still been a difficult time with lots of painful memories for both of them.  
Eventually Jack broke the silence, “I just can’t believe we’re actually going to get married.”  
They smiled for a moment, before Ianto realised something, “shit.”  
“What is it?” asked Jack, slightly concerned.  
“I’m going to have to invite my sister, aren’t I?” he shook his head, “she’s going to be insufferable.”  
Jack laughed, “easy, we’ve got plenty to do before then. Like actually getting you an engagement ring.”  
“Why don’t we do that today? Although I think that we should both get one; we can choose them together.”  
“That sounds nice. We should go to that nice Indian restaurant as well. I said I’d take you there.”  
“Excellent. I’ll just clear up, then we can get ready.”

A couple of hours later, they were strolling down the side of the bay, watching the rolling water, hand in hand.  
“So,” Jack said, breaking the comfortable silence, “what kind of engagement ring were you thinking of?”  
Ianto thought for a moment before saying, “something simple. Nothing too flashy or in your face, I really don’t think I could pull that off and it would feel very me. Although, saying that, our story is so far from simple, it might as well be on a different planet.”  
Jack nodded, considering, “that’s reassuring,” he stopped outside a shop window, “this was the ring I was thinking of. I saw it ages ago when I was coming back from a Weevil attack, and,” he shrugged, “it made me think of you.”  
Ianto smiled, looking at the simple silver band, “it’s beautiful.”  
“I thought the engraved swirls looked kind of peaceful.” Jack laughed, “and if you’re married to me, it’s the only peace you’re going to get.”  
Ianto chuckled and looked back up at Jack, “what kind of engagement ring would you want?”  
“I don’t know, in all of my years, I never had to think about that.”  
“Think about it now,” Ianto said softly.  
They stood, staring down at the ring, for a few minutes, while Jack was thinking.  
“I think simple.” He said suddenly, grinning at Ianto, “you don’t want anything that distracts from this level of gorgeous,” he gestured at himself.  
Ianto shoved him playfully, chuckling.  
When they’d stopped laughing, Jack said softly, “do you really like this ring? You don’t have to, it was just a passing thought, re-”  
Ianto stopped him, “I told you, I love it.”  
Jack smiled a little sheepishly, “why don’t we get it then. We could get one each? One in silver and one in gold?”  
Ianto nodded slowly, “I like that idea, complimentary, but not identical.”  
They walked into the shop, Jack opening the door for Ianto.  
The woman at the counter looked up with a customer-service smile, “hello gentlemen, how can I help you?”  
“We’re looking for engagement rings,” said Jack, “we liked the one in the window.”  
“Certainly, let me get it out for you so you can have a closer look.”  
She unlocked the glass back of the window and took out the ring, carefully placing it on the counter.  
They looked at it and then looked at each other.  
“I think it’s perfect,” said Ianto.  
“I think so too,” Jack replied, “and,” he indicated the label, “it’s handmade in Cardiff, the place so central to both of our lives.”  
“I think we have to get it.”  
They smiled at each other for a moment.  
Jack looked up to the woman, “we’ll have two of these please, one silver and one gold.”  
She nodded, “certainly sir, and what ring sizes?”  
“I’m afraid I don’t know, but we both have our hands here. Could you check?”  
“Of course, just come this way.”  
They both tried on the standard ring sizes and each found one that fitted them.  
“Thank you for your help,” said Jack, “the gold one is for me, and the silver one is for my fiancée.” He lit up when he said the last word and couldn’t help his face breaking out in an enormous smile.  
She noted everything down and said, “they’ll be ready by next Friday, so you can come and pick them up.”  
“Thank you,” they both said, and left the shop.

Once they were by the bay again, Ianto said, “you liked calling me your fiancée, didn’t you?”  
Jack chuckled, “I don’t think I’ll be referring to you as anything else,” he paused, “until I can call you husband, that is.”  
Ianto laughed, leaning into Jack, “hopefully it won’t be too long before you can do that, although I believe the average engagement lasts about a year, so you’ll have to wait for at least a little while.”  
“We don’t have to wait that long though.”  
“It does take time to plan a wedding, Jack, and I’d quite like to have a proper one.”  
“Of course, but I have some connections, and I’m sure we could skip some waiting lists.”  
“What about people? Invitations need to be sent out a good couple of months in advance.”  
Jack sighed, “I don’t want to be rude-”  
“Which, incidentally, is usually the precursor to a rude comment,” interrupted Ianto.  
Jack glared at him before continuing, “as I was going to say, we don’t exactly have many people to invite. Torchwood doesn’t lend itself to a vibrant social life.”  
“So we just have the rest of the team, Rhys and I’ll be crucified if Rhiannon finds out I got married without her, so her with her family. I don’t mind a small wedding, Jack, I just want it to be done right.”  
Jack nodded, “I don’t really want a big wedding either. I had that at my last wedding, it was the fashion at the time, but I found that it just meant I had to spend the day with lots of people I’d never met before. Not an experience I’m all that keen to repeat.”  
“Well, why don’t we wait until we’ve picked up the rings and then set a date?”  
“Sounds like a plan.”  
They strolled slowly back around the bay, hand in hand and leaning slightly on each other. They walked in comfortable silence, each thinking about the upcoming wedding.

When it got to six, Jack pulled Ianto towards the new Indian.  
“come on, I said I’d take you here.”  
Ianto went inside, willing to stay out so he could pretend that this day would last forever. He knew that it couldn’t, but was comforted by the fact that Jack was his, so there would always be another day like this.  
They ate slowly, both savouring the time together (and appreciating the really good food, Jack noted that they must come here again.).  
They talked primarily about the wedding, what they wanted and what they definitely did not want. They laughed about what could go wrong, because no Torchwood wedding would ever go off without some sort of alien invasion.  
“Do you think it will be worse than Gwen’s?” Ianto asked, laughing.  
Jack shook his head, “nothing could be worse than Gwen’s wedding.” He counted on his fingers, “found out she’s pregnant on the morning of the wedding, with an alien obviously. Went ahead with the wedding with the thing’s mother there and ready to rip her apart. The alien ate a guest and almost ate Toshiko. We charge around trying to contain it and get on everyone’s bad side. Gwen shoots the alien masquerading as Rhys’ mother. They have to use the singularity scalpel to get it out of her. We RetCon everyone.”  
“Yeah… it was pretty bad…”  
“I don’t think there’s much danger of us out doing them, but at least if something does happen, the only people we have to RetCon is your family.”  
“Maybe I shouldn’t invite them.”  
“You can’t not invite them because you’re worried about something that might happen. I refuse to let you do that.”  
“Okay, okay, I just didn’t want to have to tell her we’re getting married.”  
“She won’t be that bad.”  
“No, it’s Johnny I’m worried about.”  
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, you’ll be glad to have them there in the end,” said Jack, waving over the waiter to ask for the bill, “come on, let’s go home.”

It was getting dark by the time they arrived back at Ianto’s flat and they both flopped down on the sofa, not even bothering to take their coats off first.  
Jack looked up at Ianto, and pulled him towards himself, “it’s been a good day. The kind of day I never thought I’d let myself have again.”  
“You’re glad you did though, right?”  
Jack chuckled, “I couldn’t be gladder. I’ve been lonely for far too long, Ianto. I thought that my work would be enough, that I could protect myself that way and still have a good life. But even that couldn’t shut out the pain of losing people, not completely. Now that I have friends and a fiancée, I wouldn’t be able to go back to the way that I was, but I don’t know how I’m going to cope when one of you dies.” He looked Ianto in the eyes, “especially you. It is going to destroy me when you die, but I’m too selfish to keep you out.”  
“Jack,” said Ianto, wiping away the tears that had begun to run down Jack’s cheek with his thumb, “it destroys me, every single time I have to watch you die and then get dragged back to life, but even though I know how painful it is for you to come back, I can’t help being grateful that you can, because I would not be able to live without you. So really, I’m the selfish one.”  
Jack laughed, hiccoughing slightly on his tears. Imagine Ianto thinking he was the selfish one.  
“The good news is, you’ll never have to live without me.”  
Ianto laughed hesitantly and then went quiet for a moment.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“It might not come to this, Torchwood isn’t known for having long life spans, but how will you feel when I get old? When I start to get grey and wrinkly?”  
Jack wrapped his arms more tightly around Ianto, “I won’t care. You’ll still be you and I’ll still love you.” He chuckled, “people will probably just think you’re my sugar daddy.”  
Ianto shoved him, rolling his eyes, but said seriously, “do you really mean that?”  
“Yeah, especially when they see the things we’re doi-”  
“I meant about still loving me,” Ianto interrupted.  
“Ianto Jones, I hope you get old, and grey, and wrinkly, because that means we’ll have had more years together, and I could not bear putting you in the ground if you still looked young and fresh.”  
Ianto nodded slowly before yawning, “I love you.”  
“Bed?” asked Jack.  
Ianto was already halfway there.  
The next week was filled with too many Weevil attacks to count, and had even more instances of Owen complaining about how they always seemed to know when they were supposed to have some time off. Even with all of the excitement, the time dragged for Jack and Ianto, who were counting down the days until Friday.  
Eventually Friday came, and the set off to the jewellers. It wasn’t far from the Hub. The woman looked up as they came in and smiled at them.  
“Are you here for your rings?” she asked.  
They both nodded, filled with excitement.  
She went out to the back and came back a couple of minutes later with two small boxes, “I suggest you try them on, so you don’t have to come back for any adjustments.”  
They opened the boxes and gently slid the rings onto their fingers. Perfect fit.  
“Thank you so much,” said Jack, “I’ll just pay for them, and then we’ll be off. You’ve been such a help.”  
She led him over to the till, and he paid while Ianto was still marvelling at his ring.  
He was so lost in thought, that he didn’t even notice Jack until he said, “come on, time to go.”  
He said a hasty thanks before leaving the shop.

When they got back to the Hub, Ianto would have slipped away, down to the archives like he usually did, but Jack insisted on showing off their rings to the rest of the team. As much as Ianto complained, he couldn’t help but want to brag just a little bit about this gorgeous man he’d managed to land.  
“Congratulations,” said Tosh, admiring the rings, “they’re beautiful.”  
“Thank you Tosh,” said Jack.  
Tosh smiled at them again.  
“Yeah, congrats,” said Owen, before hurrying down to the medbay, not one for heartfelt speeches.  
“Thanks Owen,” Jack yelled after him, grinning.  
Just at that moment Gwen walked in, and Jack called her over to look at the rings.  
“Congratulations,” she said, with a slightly too big smile on her face, “I know you’ll be very happy.”  
“Thank you, we will,” said Ianto quietly.

When he finally managed to escape down to the comfort of the archives, he couldn’t stop staring at the ring. He loved the comforting weight on his finger already, and although he felt slightly uncomfortable when the team was congratulating them, he couldn’t wait to get home. He’d show Jack how much he really loved him.  
He heard footsteps coming and hurried to actually look like he was doing the work he was supposed to.  
“Working hard?” said Jack from behind him.  
Ianto spun around, “of course, sir,” he replied, blushing slightly.  
“Then I think it’s time you had a break.”  
“Okay-” was all Ianto was able to get out before Jack started kissing him, and he certainly wasn’t about to object.


	4. Wedding Planning

The next afternoon, Jack and Ianto were sat at Jack’s desk, with an empty piece of paper between them. For once, the rift was quiet and Jack had no pressing paperwork to do (or rather, that’s what he told Ianto), so they decided to start planning the wedding. After all, they weren’t planning on having a long engagement, but that didn’t mean that there were fewer things to be organised. They were both a little intimidated to say the least, neither of them having planned a wedding before, but it couldn’t be that hard… right? Still, Jack was glad to have Ianto to help him, if there was one thing that he was good at – apart from making coffee – it was getting things organised.  
“Why don’t we make a list of things that need sorting?” suggested Ianto, after a few minutes of staring at the empty page in silence, as the monumental task seemed to grow and grow.  
“Yeah, seems as good a place to start as any,” replied Jack, picking up a pen, “so, what’s first?”  
“I suppose invitations, which would include dates, dress code, and venue.”  
“Okay, okay, slow down,” said Jack, struggling to keep up with writing things down, “do we want to do actual physical invitations, or shall we just ask people in person?”  
“I don’t suppose there’s much point doing invitations, because we can invite the team easily in person, and I’ll have to go to Rhiannon’s anyway, otherwise she’ll try and come to me, which would be a much bigger inconvenience, especially if you’re around. Regardless, the other information still needs to be sorted.”  
Jack pretended he hadn’t heard Ianto call him an inconvenience and said, “right, so a date?”  
Ianto nodded, “it can’t be too soon, unless you want a half-organised wedding. Things do actually take time.”  
“I think we can get everything sorted in a month with my contacts, so how about September, Sunday 15th?”  
Ianto considered, “it is soon, but if you think that you can get everything sorted by then, then okay, but it means we’ll have to invite people basically immediately.”  
“Well why don’t you go and visit Rhiannon on Saturday? I’ll come with you if you like.”  
Ianto thought for a moment, surveying Jack critically, “I think you’d better, but nothing too inappropriate, please.”  
Jack pretended to act shocked, “I would never!”  
Ianto raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief.  
“Okay, but that was one time. Everyone makes mistakes and how was I supposed to know she would be back so quickly? She said she had to go and pick up the kids.”  
“Well I’d rather not have a repeat, so if you do anything inappropriate, I’ll make you go and wait in the car.”  
“I said I was sorry!”  
“Do you promise not to do it again?”  
“Yes-”  
“Then you can come,”  
“I’ll wait until we’re definitely alone, then I can do what I really want,” Jack finished, grinning.  
Ianto glared at him, “this is what I mean about inappropriate comments.”  
“So that would get me sent out to the car?”  
“Or have you walking home. Now,” Ianto turned back to the paper, “what about venue?”  
“The only place I’ve seen that isn’t for upwards of 100 people is ‘The Mansion House’. It’s very beautiful and isn’t out in the middle of nowhere.”  
Ianto quickly got the site up on the computer and flicked through the photos, “I think it’s wonderful.”  
“I’ll send them an email then.”  
They smiled at each other, maybe this wedding would actually come together easily, if they could decide on everything else this quickly.  
“Okay,” said Ianto, ticking date and venue off the list, “what about dress code?”  
“Nothing too formal,” replied Jack, “I don’t think it would be right with a smaller wedding and the people that we have there. Besides, I don’t think anyone wants to see Rhys in black tie,” he chuckled.  
“How about cocktail? Not too fancy, but everyone will still look nice.”  
“Sounds good,” Jack wrote it down on the list, nicking the pen from Ianto.  
“Well, how about we get the venue sorted, before trying to organise anything like flowers? Because you can’t really decide on that until you have the venue.”  
Jack nodded, “yeah, and I’ll send them an email now.”

Later that day, Jack went down to the archives, looking for Ianto. He found him, humming happily to himself while he methodically went through the shelves next to him. Jack smiled to himself; Ianto was never happier than when he was sorting and organising, and Jack wouldn’t have him any other way. Jack suddenly realised he’d been standing, smiling sappily at Ianto for quite a while. He shook his head to break himself out of his reverie.  
“Hey,” he said, “I just got an email back from the Mansion House people about the wedding.”  
“Oh yeah?” said Ianto, turning to face Jack and leaning against the shelves behind him, a file in his hands, “what did they say?”  
“They don’t have a wedding booked for the 15th, so they suggested that we went and had a look at it and then we can discuss the logistics with them, and have the date reserved so we can take some time making up our mind.”  
“Sounds good, when were you thinking of going? We don’t have a day off booked in the near future,” said Ianto, about to turn back to his filing.  
“I was sort of thinking we could go now?”  
“Jack! It’s the middle of the workday, and I’m trying to get these shelves organised by the end of the day,” he held up the file he was holding pointedly.  
“But the rift is being quiet, even if it did start playing up, we would still be in Cardiff,” Jack reasoned, “and it would only take a couple of hours, you could finish the filing when you got back?”  
“Fine,” said Ianto, carefully noting his place and putting his file sheet down. Realistically, he knew there was no way he would be finishing this today, even with Jack’s promise, but he did really want to see the venue, it looked beautiful online, and he wanted to see it in real life, see if he could imagine getting married to Jack there.. Besides, working for torchwood, you had to be flexible, and this was just him, being flexible.

Half an hour later, they were standing outside the Manor House. It was breath-taking, in a vintage stately home kind of way, it felt like something out of a period drama, until you looked at the busy road at the end of the drive.. They rang the bell, listening to it clanging down the hallway, and soon a young woman opened the door.  
“Good afternoon!” she said, smiling brightly.  
“Hi, I’m Captain Jack Harkness, here to look at the venue.”  
Ianto could practically see the poor girl melt, she was even grabbing onto the door to stop her knees giving way, he rolled his eyes and smiled to himself; nothing would ever stop Jack from flirting with everyone around him, not even their wedding. He thought that he would hate it when they became more serious, but it was just part of Jack, and he wouldn’t have him any other way. After all, Ianto was the one he was coming home to.  
“Certainly,” she opened the door wider, her smile becoming more genuine, “come on in.”  
“Thank you,” said Ianto, “I’m Ianto Jones.”  
“My name is Sarah, I’m the organiser for this venue. So, you said this was for a wedding?”  
“Yeah,” Jack replied, “we’re just having a small wedding, less than 20 people, so we wanted something a little cosier and more intimate than some of the other, larger venues, and we thought that this would work well.”  
Sarah nodded, and started to show them around.

“We have the facilities to take care of almost everything, for things like catering and flowers we have our own sellers, so if you want to reduce stress and planning, we can set you up with those and they can talk you through a few options that they know work with this venue.”  
“That sounds excellent,” said Ianto, who, as much as he liked organising things, knew that their erratic work hours would not lend itself to organising a wedding, especially not in such a short time frame. Limited choices could be nothing but helpful, and he knew that if anything could be done for them, or done over email, he would jump at the chance.  
“How many bedrooms does it have?” Ianto asked, looking up the impressive staircase to the first floor.  
“Four luxury bedrooms with en-suites.”  
“So, we would be able to have the wedding and reception in the late afternoon or the evening, and then the guests could stay over and have breakfast?”  
“Certainly, and breakfast is included in our exclusive wedding package.”  
“What do you think? I was mostly thinking of Rhiannon, and she would probably want to get the kids to bed not too late.” he asked Jack.  
“I think that sounds perfect.” Jack smiled.  
“Excellent, so if you write your names and contact details down here, then we can get your input for things like the food and the flowers.”  
Jack wrote down their names and his email address.  
“Thank you! What date were you thinking of for the wedding?”  
“September the 15th,” said Ianto.  
“Wow, that’s really soon,” she said, clearly taken slightly off guard, but a moment later the professional efficiency was back, “but I do believe we have a vacancy on that day.”  
“Yes,” replied Jack, “they said they did when I emailed earlier, so I would appreciate if you reserve that day for us,” he glanced over at Ianto, who was staring at the room, smiling, “I think it seems more than likely that we’ll get married here.”  
“Naturally,” she said.

They walked back toward the front entrance, Sarah leading the way, and she ushered them out the door with promises to be in touch soon.

“That was surprisingly productive,” said Ianto, as they strolled down the steps towards the main road, “I didn’t expect to fall in love with a venue quite so soon.”  
“I think it will be a wonderful place to have a wedding.”  
Ianto paused on the steps down to the road, “Does that mean I can get back to my filing now?”  
Jack laughed, “honestly, if I didn’t know better, I would say that you loved your filing more than me!”  
He stopped a step below Ianto.  
“I’m just very conscious of how much work I’ve got left to do, and I’m not particularly eager to work through the night, surprisingly enough. I find that my sleep schedule gets disrupted enough without having to stay behind to finish filing. Besides, I never do this with my filing.”  
He leant forward to kiss Jack, who, in true Jack Harkness style, made it slightly inappropriate for a public setting, pushing Ianto back against the stone wall behind him.  
Ianto pulled away, a blush beginning to spread over his face. He was never one for PDA, which was a little unfortunate, seeing as Jack still hadn’t quite managed to grasp the concept of ‘appropriate things to do in public’.  
“I should hope that you don’t do that to your filing,” said Jack, grinning, “otherwise, we have a serious problem on our hands.”  
“Come on, let’s get back to the Hub,” Ianto said, taking the keys from Jack’s coat pocket, “I’ll drive.”  
Jack chuckled as he followed Ianto to the car and, unfortunately, back to work.

A couple of days later, Jack went back down to the archives to find Ianto, once again contentedly sorting out some files. Jack hugged him from behind.  
“What do you want?” asked Ianto, slightly suspiciously, he hadn’t forgotten how Jack dragged him away from his filing last time to look at wedding venues, and although it was, admittedly, both fun and useful, he was still dealing with the lag from missing three hours of work..  
“I thought maybe we could go and get suits this morning, for the wedding?”  
“Jack, I’m still trying to catch up on the work I missed when we went to look at the venue. Why can’t you go by yourself? I can get mine later.”  
“Because we have to be complementary, and because I value your input. After all, you’re the one who has to stand next to me.”  
Ianto rolled his eyes, “fine, but I’m charging you for overtime.”  
Jack smiled and kissed Ianto’s neck, “you finish up here quickly, and I’ll go and get the car.”

Before long, they were pulling up outside a bridal shop, and Ianto closed his eyes, sliding down in his seat, realising it was the same one that he bought Gwen’s wedding dress from.  
“I can’t go in there,” he said as Jack parked the car, still with his eyes closed.  
“Why not?” Jack chuckled, “I loved Gwen’s dress, and I thought it was as good as any other place.”  
Ianto sighed, “because, they thought I was buying a wedding dress for me.”  
Jack laughed, “I’m sure they won’t even remember it; besides, I think you’d look hot in a wedding dress.”  
Ianto pushed him playfully and reluctantly got out of the car, smoothing the creases out from his suit in an effort to feel more in control.

They entered the shop, and were greeted by a man, who saw Ianto and said,  
“how was your ‘friend’s’ wedding, sir?”  
Ianto closed his eyes and wished the ground would swallow him up.  
Jack put his arm round his waist and replied, “it was beautiful, and we’re here to look at suits for our wedding.”  
The shop assistant smiled patronizingly, “of course, come right this way, sirs”  
He led them to a section of the shop filled with suits and tuxedos, everything from outlandish holographic suits, to traditional black tuxedos.  
“If you need any help, just let me know. The changing room on the end is free,” he said, before leaving them to go and help some other customers, or possibly to go and gossip with his co-workers. Ianto was leaning heavily towards the latter.  
Ianto followed Jack as he started to browse the suits, “that was humiliating. Of all the bridal shops in Cardiff, you had to pick this one.”  
“How was I supposed to know? You never told me, besides,” he gestured around them, “you’ve got to admit that they’ve got a pretty good selection.”  
“Still embarrassing,” he raised a hand to his still flushed face, willing it to cool down.  
“At least now he knows that you’re getting married to me, so that wedding dress wasn’t for you.”  
“Yeah, or he thinks that I dress up in wedding dressing recreationally,” grumbled Ianto.  
“Why don’t we look at the suits, that is why we’re here, after all,” said Jack, giving Ianto a quick kiss, “although, as I said before, I really think that you could pull off a wedding dress.”  
Ianto rolled his eyes and started looking through the suits.

Soon, they both had a few suits to try on. Jack grinned, quickly covering something with his other suits. Ianto grimaced, he didn’t even want to think about what Jack was hiding.  
“You go first,” said Ianto, he might as well get whatever Jack was plotting out of the way, “I’ll sit over here and judge you.”  
Jack smiled at him, before disappearing into the changing room.

A couple of minutes later, Jack came out in a hideous, metallic blue suit.  
“Absolutely not,” said Ianto, shaking his head.  
“No? I thought it could look cool.”  
“Nope, and you’re not wearing that if you want to marry me.”  
“I’m glad I asked you to come. Although I did pick it out as a joke, I will say, it’s growing on me,” Jack said, admiring himself in the mirror.  
“I repeat my earlier statement. I’m not marrying you in that.”  
“Fine, I wasn’t seriously considering it.” Jack gave a final glance in the mirror before disappearing back into the changing room.

Jack tried on a few more, slightly less outlandish, suits, and they decided on a, slightly more traditional, navy-blue waistcoat and jacket, along with a pink tie.  
Ianto thought that it was like his coat in suit form, and he was certainly not against it.

Ianto’s suits were decidedly less over-the-top than some of Jack’s had been, even disregarding the awful metallic blue suit, and, in Jack’s opinion anyway, they all looked incredible on him. Still, he decided on a textured grey waistcoat and jacket, with the same pink tie as Jack, just to make them a little more complementary.  
They had a fitting with the tailor, which included Jack making rather too many slightly too suggestive comments, which further solidified Ianto’s resolve never to enter that shop again, but, to be fair, the tailor was very good, and the suits would be ready to pick up in two weeks’ time.

They left the shop, hand in hand, and made their way back to the car.  
“Thank you for coming with me. At least it’s another thing that we can check off the list.”  
“True, but you’re going to pick them up. I’m never setting foot in that shop again.”  
“I never knew you were such a drama queen, Ianto Jones. Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon, and you can get back to your filing.”  
“Good, and you’re still paying me for overtime.”  
“Like I’d forget.”  
“Hmm, I don’t trust you.”  
“That’s a very rude thing to say to your fiancé,” Jack laughed, and leaned in to kiss him.  
They kissed for a minute, leaning against the side of the car, before Ianto pulled away.  
“Come on, I really do need to get back to work. This is the reason I don’t trust you; you’re far too good at distracting me. Some of us don’t have time to spend the working day dreaming about weddings,” Ianto said, whilst getting into the car.  
“Spoilsport,” Jack muttered.  
Ianto grinned.


	5. Visiting Rhiannon

On Saturday morning, Ianto blinked open his eyes, blearily staring at the clock to see what time it was. Seven O’clock. He looked at Jack sleeping next to him. He never looked this peaceful when he was awake, but unfortunately Ianto didn’t have much choice. He pulled open the curtains to let in the morning sun and he shook Jack gently. Jack opened his eyes, squinting in the bright sunlight.  
“Good morning,” said Ianto, already getting out of bed, now that he was sure that Jack was definitely awake.  
“Why did you wake me up? I thought we were having a day off?”  
“We are, to go and visit my sister. You said you would come with me, remember?”  
“Right, I remember,” said Jack, swinging his legs out of bed, “but is there any reason we have to go so early?”  
“We have to go this early, because Johnny comes home from his shift at 12, and I don’t especially want to see him today,” explained Ianto patiently.  
“But what if Rhiannon isn’t up yet?”  
“I know what time Mica and David get up,” he shuddered, remembering the last time he stayed at Rhiannon’s house and was woken unceremoniously at five thirty by a water balloon to the face, “so trust me, she’ll be awake.”  
There was no way she would dare sleep in when Mica and David were loose. Who knew what mischief they would get up to if they were left unsupervised.  
“Fair enough,” said Jack, yawning and getting off the bed, “I don’t suppose you could at least make some coffee?” he made his way to the kitchen, stretching as he went.  
“I don’t suppose you could put some clothes on?” Ianto called after him.  
“It’s too hot for a dressing gown!” Jack yelled back, “besides, you love it really.”  
Ianto shook his head, but quickly headed out to the kitchen to put the coffee machine on. He didn’t particularly trust Jack unsupervised either, especially not in his immaculate kitchen.

Jack was standing in the middle of the kitchen, putting a couple of slices of bread in the toaster, but somehow managing to be exactly wherever Ianto wanted to be. Ianto carefully manoeuvred around him to sort out the coffee. He wasn’t exactly keen to visit his family without his caffeine fix; they weren’t exactly the people he could let his guard down with, as much as he did love Rhiannon at least.  
“You know,” Jack started, breaking the silence and causing Ianto to jump slightly, “I really don’t think you’re good for me.”  
“What?” said Ianto, confused and slightly concerned. Did Jack want to call off the wedding? And did he think that this was the best way to tell him?  
“You see, I used to be able to get up and do things, but now I can’t function unless I’ve had some, okay, quite a lot, of your coffee.”  
“It’s a good job you’re marrying me then.”  
“Yeah, is the coffee done yet?”  
“Give it a minute, I’ve only just put it on,” he turned to Jack with a raised eyebrow, “but surely you’re not only marrying me to ensure a steady stream of coffee?”  
“No,” said Jack, “I would just call it a convenient perk.”  
Ianto laughed as he turned to pour out the, now finished, coffee.

An hour later, they were in the car driving towards the Cromwell Estate. As they neared Rhiannon’s house, Ianto broke the comfortable silence they’d been sat in since they left.  
“Now, what are you not to do?”  
“Anything inappropriate,” Jack replied, rolling his eyes.  
“Or?”  
“Or you’ll make me go and wait in the car.”  
“Right,” said Ianto, smoothly pulling into a parking space and turning off the car, “you ready?”  
Jack nodded, “you?”  
“I’ll get through it,” Ianto replied, getting out of the car.

They walked up the path and knocked on the door. While they were waiting, Ianto couldn’t stop smoothing down his suit anxiously, so Jack took one of his hands and brushed his thumb over it soothingly.  
Soon, Rhiannon opened the door, yelling something up the stairs to Mica. She smiled when she saw who it was.  
“Ianto, Jack! I didn’t expect to see you today. Come in, come in,” she said ushering them inside.  
She bustled round the kitchen, making cups of tea and chattering away, with only the occasional interruption to tell David off for winding Mica up.

Before long, they were all sat round the small kitchen table with a cup of tea each. Ianto sipped his nervously.  
“So,” said Rhiannon, holding her mug of tea in both hands, “why are you here? You almost never come round, not that I’m not pleased to see you mind.”  
Ianto sort of felt like he was in an interview, or being interrogated, but there was no putting it off any longer.  
“Well,” Ianto began, “we’re getting married.” He forced himself to look at Rhiannon instead of shutting his eyes.  
Rhiannon stared at them, open-mouthed, lost for words. Jack held up his left hand, with a grin, so she could see the ring.  
“You’re joking,” said Rhiannon at last, looking from one to the other, as if they were going to tell her it was just a prank.  
“No,” said Ianto quietly, shaking his head.  
“But- it’s just, no offence, I never had you down as the marrying type, Jack.”  
“What can I say,” Jack chuckled, “Ianto’s always been a bit of an exception for me.”  
“I guess you were exceptions for each other,” she said, with a meaningful look at Ianto, “well, congratulations!”  
“Thanks,” said Ianto, “and, we’d also like to invite you to the wedding. It’s on September the 15th.”  
“That’s soon! How long have you been engaged without telling me?”  
“Don’t worry,” said Jack, “I only proposed a couple of weeks ago, and we only got the rings last week.”  
“Not exactly a long engagement then,” Rhiannon replied, laughing, “I’ll be impressed if you manage to get everything sorted in time!”  
“We didn’t want to wait any longer than we had to,” Jack smiled at Ianto, “and how can you doubt we’ll have everything organised, when we’ve got Ianto heading everything up?”  
“True, I never should have underestimated his organising ability.”  
“Yeah,” said Ianto quietly, sort of wishing they could leave and enjoy the rest of their day off by themselves, “thanks.”  
“And I’m sure you’ll be very happy,” said Rhiannon, standing up, “now, you must stay for lunch.”  
“We shouldn’t really stay for so long-” Ianto began, seeing his hopes of getting away quickly slipping out of his grasp.  
“Don’t be silly, you daft sod,” interrupted Rhiannon, “I hardly ever see you, so I’m jolly well going to keep you here for as long as I can. Besides, I’m sure Johnny will want to hear the news when he gets home, so you can be the ones to tell him.”  
Ianto grimaced barely perceptibly, but Rhiannon saw it out of the corner of her eye.  
“Sorry,” said Rhiannon, faltering slightly, “I just assumed that he was invited..” she trailed off.  
Ianto looked up at her and managed to muster an almost genuine looking smile, “all four of you are invited, of course. We just didn’t want to impose, and I didn’t know if we had to get back to work.” He looked at Jack pointedly, and Jack pretended not to notice.  
“Honestly,” Rhiannon rolled her eyes and flicked him with the tea towel, “I’m your sister, you can’t impose on me. And what kind of civil servant works on Saturday? Especially when they’re out with their boss. Although, I am certainly not leaving you two alone here after what happened last time.”  
Ianto banged his head on the table, really wishing they could have left, while Jack chuckled.  
“Sorry Rhiannon, I just can’t keep my hands off him,” he said, earning himself a slap on the leg from Ianto.  
Rhiannon laughed, “now, you can help me peel the potatoes, both of you. That should be enough to keep you out of trouble.”

Just as the shepherd’s pie was being put into the oven, the front door opened, and, out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Ianto tense for a moment, before forcing himself into a more relaxed posture. Jack reached over and took his hand. He knew that this was difficult for him.  
“What are you two doing here then?” asked Johnny, pulling his boots off and getting mud all over the carpet, which made Ianto internally wince.  
Rhiannon smiled at them and gestured for Ianto to say something.  
“We just came round to invite all of you to our wedding,” said Ianto stiffly.  
Johnny looked up in surprise, “really?” he asked.  
Ianto nodded, with a forced smile on his face, “it will be a very small wedding, but I would like to have my only family there.”  
Johnny clapped them both on the back, and said to Jack, “now you’re going to be stuck with this boring muppet for the rest of your life.”  
Jack chuckled, “I don’t know, I’ve found that he can be really rather imaginat-”  
He stopped when he saw Ianto glaring at him and then looking pointedly at the car. He didn’t want to push him too far, just in case he actually followed through on his promise.  
“What I meant to say,” he continued, “is that I can’t wait to marry him.”  
“Well,” Johnny laughed obnoxiously, “rather you than me.”

It seemed like an age until lunch was ready, although it couldn’t have been more than an hour. Still, an hour of small talk was a long time, especially with Johnny’s thinly veiled insults peppering the conversation, mostly directed towards Ianto.  
Finally, they were all sat down and eating. There was silence at last, apart from the occasional telling off of the kids, who were flicking peas at each other, and the silence wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was certainly preferable to the awkward conversation, for Ianto anyway.

As soon as they’d finished eating, Ianto stood up.  
“Thank you very much for the lunch, Rhiannon, but we really must be going,” he said, picking up his and Jack’s coats from the back of a nearby chair.  
“Well it was lovely to see you,” she replied, standing up and giving Ianto a hug, “call me with any more details.”  
Jack also stood up, and Ianto helped him on with his coat, “it really has been lovely to see you again,” he said, “and don’t worry, we’ll let you know all of the details for the wedding in plenty of time.”

As they left, Ianto breathed a sigh of relief and climbed into the car.  
“I told you it wouldn’t be that bad, didn’t I?” said Jack, starting the car. He had decided that Ianto was too tired and out of sorts to drive and, although Ianto had disputed that point, he’d let Jack take the keys from him.  
“It could have been worse. I just feel like they’ve never taken our relationship seriously, they’ve never seen it as more than a bit of fun, so suddenly turning up and telling them that I was marrying you, must have been quite a shock.”  
“Yeah, but they probably don’t take it seriously because they hardly ever see you, especially not with me, so they can’t really imagine it. They don’t know us all that well, and even less than they think, but they still want what’s best for you,” he paused for a moment, revising, “well, Rhiannon wants what’s best for you, I’m not too sure about Johnny.”  
“Well, it’s not like I can be honest with them about my life. I think Rhiannon would have a heart attack if she ever saw a weevil.”  
“But she misses you.”  
“I- I know. I just find it difficult to be around her when she barely knows anything about me anymore.”  
“I know Cariad, I know.”

A week later, Ianto had finally caught up with his filing. He wrote the last note down in his book and closed it, smiling. He might actually be able to leave before seven today, which meant he would be able to cook a proper meal and go to bed early. He rolled his eyes at himself. He sounded like an old man. Still, he couldn’t deny that it was what he wanted.  
Just as he was getting ready to go back up to the main Hub and deal with whatever mess had, inevitably, magically appeared, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Ianto sighed, really hoping that it wouldn’t be anything that would get him behind on his work again, especially if it was someone looking for a file, that was the worst. For some reason, they never thought to ask him where things are, but always decided that it was better to look for things themselves and mess up his carefully organised files. He still hadn’t forgiven Owen for the mess he made in the archives last week looking for the medical records for some alien or other. It had taken him three days to clear that mess up.  
Jack rounded the corner of the archives and was met with a death glare from Ianto. He held up his hands in mock surrender and backed away a couple of steps.  
“Woah,” he said, “whatever it is, I didn’t do it.”  
“What is it?” asked Ianto, slightly suspicious and feeling rather protective over his files.  
Jack deemed it safe to approach, so he walked up to Ianto and put his arms round his waist before answering his question.  
“I just came down to let you know that the venue called, so you can stop glaring at me like that.”  
“What did they say?” Ianto asked, still not quite trusting that he wouldn’t be whisked off somewhere, although he concluded that Jack probably wasn’t looking for a file, so that was a relief.  
“Just to say that they’ve now heard back from all of their vendors with confirmation of our orders, so everything is sorted.”  
“Excellent,” said Ianto, finally relaxing and leaning into Jack.  
“I thought you might like to call Rhiannon and confirm, it’s only nine days till the wedding.”  
Ianto smiled, not entirely thrilled about the prospect, “yeah, I’ll come up and do that now.”  
“Okay,” said Jack, giving him a quick kiss before disappearing back up into the main Hub.  
Ianto stared after him for a while, trying to collect his thoughts, and, if he was completely honest with himself, procrastinating making the phone call. Still, it was better than another visit. Most of the time, he was glad there was no signal down in the archives, it was like his own sanctuary, but would have much rather made this call among the comfort of files and shelves. He sighed, but carefully put away all of his filing work before reluctantly heading up the stairs after Jack.

Up in the main Hub, he checked his watch and, realising it was a good four hours since he’d made any coffee, decided to rectify that immediately, with the convenient side effect of being able to procrastinate the phone call for just a little bit longer. He also didn’t want anyone trying to use his coffee machine. That was worse than them trying to find a file, and he didn’t especially want to replace it again.  
Soon enough, the coffee was made, and he delivered a large cup to everyone’s desk, before heading up to Jack’s office. He knocked on the door before entering.  
“Ianto! Did you call your sister?”  
“I’ll do it now,” Ianto replied, “I thought I’d better make coffee first, before I had the team after me, or worse, trying to use my coffee machine themselves.”  
Jack chuckled, “I don’t think any of them would dare, not after the way you blew up last time. And you should call Rhiannon now; there’s no point putting it off, and she does need to know about the arrangements.”  
Ianto sighed, as always, Jack had seen right through him and knew what he was thinking. He handed Jack the coffee and got his phone out, leaving the office as he dialled Rhiannon’s number.  
He went into the greenhouse, feeling like it was slightly more private than the main Hub. He didn’t really want anyone listening in on his personal calls. It was bad enough without the rest of the team hearing. The phone rang, and he sort of wished she wouldn’t pick up, but on the third ring she did.  
“Hi Rhiannon, I was just calling to let you know about the rest of the wedding arrangements.”  
He listened to her chattering, trying to find a pause so that he could continue. Eventually, she took a breath and Ianto used the slight pause to interrupt her.  
“So, all of you are in the front bedroom, it might be a bit of a squeeze, but there should be enough room. The ceremony starts at five, and then we’ll have breakfast in the dining room the next morning at nine, before Jack and I head off to catch our flight, around about ten.”  
Rhiannon cut him off again, and he was hardly able to get a word in edgeways.  
Finally, he just spoke over the top of her, “no, I still don’t know where I’m going for the honeymoon, Jack won’t tell me. I’ll see you at the wedding. Bye, I love you too.”  
He hung up the phone with a sigh. He did love his sister, but she was quite exhausting to talk to. Still, at least it was done now, and all he had to worry about was the actual wedding.


	6. The Wedding

Ianto stood in the kitchen of his flat, waiting for the coffee. Today was a day that would need a lot of coffee, he suspected, if only to calm his juddering nerves. He heard the bedroom door slam shut, and he jumped at the sudden noise, the only sign of how on edge he really was.  
A few moments later, Jack padded into the room and put his arms around Ianto, resting his head on Ianto’s shoulder.  
“Good morning,” he said sleepily, kissing Ianto’s neck, “and happy wedding day.”  
Ianto smiled, “happy wedding day indeed,” he replied, sounding a lot more sure of himself than he felt.  
He poured the coffee into two large mugs and handed one to Jack, who took it gratefully. He took a sip, feeling more relaxed already. It was unclear whether that was to do with the coffee or Jack’s presence, but either way, he was glad of it. Today was going to be quite a day, even if nothing went wrong.

Soon, they were driving towards the venue, their suits hanging up in the back seat of the car, and Ianto’s nerves started to return. He couldn’t quite believe that at the end of the day he would be married to Captain Jack Harkness. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that this would actually happen. It all seemed too good to be true. His only hope was that their wedding wouldn’t be a complete disaster. Memories of the Nostrovite played themselves over and over again in his head, no matter how he tried to shut them out.  
Jack looked over at him, noticing how he drummed his fingers against the side of the seat.  
“Hey,” he said quietly, “It’s all going to be fine. If anything happens, then we’ll deal with it, like we always do.”  
Ianto forced a quick smile, “yeah, I just can’t help thinking about the last Torchwood wedding. That was quite an ordeal.”  
“It was all alright in the end though, and neither of us are pregnant, so we’re already doing better than Gwen.”  
Ianto nodded, laughing slightly, “I think we’d have a lot more explaining to do if one of us was pregnant. Somehow I don’t think Rhiannon would accept camouflage dressing as an excuse.”  
“No,” Jack chuckled, “I don’t think we’d have much choice but to call off the wedding.”  
“Not unless we told them the truth and then RetConned them afterwards.”  
They sat in silence for a moment, until Ianto sighed.  
"I’m just nervous, but I can’t quite figure out why. Nothing has actually happened yet that would suggest something will go wrong.”  
Jack smiled, “it’s normal to be nervous on your wedding day, as long as you’re not getting cold feet!” He half-joked.  
“No, believe it or not, you’re the only thing that I am sure about.”  
“If we’re sure about each other, then nothing else really matters, and I’m sure everything will be fi-”  
He cut of suddenly, slamming the car to a halt as a brightly coloured streak flashed in front of them. The smile faded off his face. He quickly pulled the car into a side alley and jumped out, putting on his comms set as he did so.  
Ianto hurried after him, “Jack, what was that thing? What’s wrong?”  
“Fae,” Jack answered shortly, waiting impatiently for his comms to turn on.  
“But we dealt with the Fae,” said Ianto, rushing to keep up with Jack, “you made a deal with them.”  
“No, no, we dealt with the Faeries,” Jack shook his head, real fear in his eyes, “these are worse. So much worse and so much more advanced. They don’t just kill people, they possess them. Not for long, just long enough to create unrest, until the people kill each other. They destroy from the inside out, and I’ve seen whole armies decimated by them.”  
“So how can we stop them?”  
“The only thing you can do to get them off your back is to offer them a bigger group of people.”  
“Can we kill them?”  
“Probably, if you can catch them outside the body, but they are fast. But when they move, they leave large energy trails, so we can at least track them. That’s as far as we got into researching them last time, before they moved on. We did do a post-mortem though, because we found one on the ground that had died.”  
“I suggest you call Tosh and Owen.”  
Jack nodded, already making a million and one plans to try and stop these creatures.

In less than an hour, the whole team was at the wedding venue, holding a meeting in one of the bedrooms. The venue organiser kept trying to ask them questions about frivolous, and currently irrelevant, things like flowers, but Ianto had managed to get her off their back for long enough to have a proper conversation and decide what the plan of action was.  
“So Jack,” started Gwen, “how can we stop these Fae?”  
“They’re drawn to places with high emotion, so I don’t think that it would be too difficult to lure them here. That should keep them away from the rest of Cardiff, and hopefully we can kill them before the actual wedding. We think they come in relatively small numbers, no more than thirty or so.”  
“What about my sister and her family? They’re supposed to be arriving in an hour,” interjected Ianto.  
“We’ll try and get this sorted without them getting involved, but if necessary, we will just have to RetCon them. The safety of the city comes first.”  
Ianto nodded, “right. You said you’d dealt with them before and someone did a post-mortem. Does that mean that there are files on them?”  
“Yes, there should be. Owen, you go and find them, see if there’s anything useful in them.”  
Owen nodded and went towards the door.  
“I’m coming too,” said Ianto.  
“We need somebody to organise the wedding stuff, or else we’ll never get married today,” Jack replied, “this job doesn’t need two people, and Owen is our best bet for finding something medical that could kill them.”  
“Well, I’m not having him messing up my filing again, I only just got it sorted. Besides, it would be quicker if I found it. I know where to look.”  
Jack nodded, feeling secretly happy that Ianto would be away from the action, even though he knew he could handle himself perfectly well, “okay,” he gave Ianto a kiss before he left with Owen.  
He took a moment to gather his thoughts before turning to Tosh and Gwen.  
“Finish setting up the equipment. Tosh, do you think you could make them come here? We need energy pulses that mimic emotion. Anything will do, but I think your best bet is probably happiness or joy.”  
Tosh nodded, “I think I have just the programme.”  
“Then let’s get to work.”

Back at the Hub, Owen and Ianto were down in the archives. Owen was tapping his foot impatiently, while Ianto went methodically from one shelf to another.  
“If your filing system is so great, then shouldn’t you have found it by now?” Owen asked.  
“Jack didn’t exactly give me a lot of information, so there are a few places that it could be. It’ll still be quicker than if you were looking.”  
Owen knew he was right, but that didn’t stop him grumbling.

A few minutes later, Ianto extracted a file.  
“Here it is!”  
Owen grabbed it from him and started flicking through it, “I can’t see anything in this light, how on earth do you work down here?”  
Ianto ignored Owen’s comment, and they hurried up the stairs into the much better lit Hub, spreading all of the sheets of paper over the kitchen table.  
They scanned the documents, most of which Ianto couldn’t make head or tail of, because they were written in medical shorthand, but thankfully, Owen seemed to be having better luck.  
Suddenly, he flung himself back in his seat and laughed, before asking, “how much insect repellent do you have?”

Back at the venue it had started to become a little bit chaotic. Tosh’s programme had started to work, and the odd brightly coloured flash could be seen around the venue, while the fae were creating problems. Slightly unhelpfully, Rhiannon and her family had arrived early, wanting to talk to Ianto before it all got too crazy, and they’d started talking to Jack.  
“Where’s Ianto? I’ve got something I’d like to give him.”  
Jack caught sight of the bright colours of a fae out of the corner of his eye, and knew Ianto would never forgive him if he put his family in danger, not after he’d worked to hard to keep them at arm’s length and out of the way of his work.  
“He’s just on his way, he’ll be here soon,” Jack replied, “why don’t you go and get yourselves organised in the front bedroom. It’s just at the top of the stairs when you turn left.”  
They started towards the stairs and Jack called after them, “I suggest you keep the door shut! It’s quite noisy down here!”  
Thankfully that got rid of them for a while. He checked his watch. The ceremony was supposed to start in less than an hour. With the help of Gwen and Rhys, who had arrived to help when Gwen told him what was happening, he’d created a one-way net around the venue, so the Fae could get in, but they couldn’t get out. Unfortunately, neither could any of the people. There was nothing more he could do until Owen and Ianto got back with the information, so he decided to get ready, and instructed Tosh, Gwen, and Rhys to do the same.

Ianto opened a cupboard in the kitchen at the Hub, and threw all of the cans of Raid he had in there to Owen. Owen caught them and stuffed them in a bag.  
“Blimey Ianto, why on earth do you have eight bottles of insect repellent?”  
“They were on offer last summer, and it’s always better to be prepared. Don’t say you weren’t glad of them when we had that cockroach problem last year.”  
Owen shrugged and finished filling the bag, “come on, we’d better get back before all hell breaks loose.”  
They jumped into the car, and sped off towards the venue with a complete disregard for speed limits. As Owen said when Ianto tried to convince him to go at least a little slower:  
“They can’t arrest me if they’re all dead.”

Quicker than they expected, even with Owen’s completely reckless driving, they were back at the venue, and Owen was right, hell was about to break loose. No one was trying to kill each other yet, but tensions were definitely running high. People were fighting each other, and even themselves, when they were possessed by two different Fae, who couldn’t decide what to do with them. They burst through the front door, armed with cans of Raid. Rhiannon almost bumped into Ianto, then clung onto him, crying. Ianto gave Owen a pleading look, and he nodded.  
“You sort her out, I’ll deal with all of the dangerous shit.”  
Ianto quickly carted her off to a side room, closing and locking the door behind them to keep the Fae out.  
“There are things everywhere, and everyone’s screaming, and Johnny isn’t himself, neither are the kids and I don’t know what’s going on!” she said, sounding rather hysterical.  
Ianto sat down next to her on the window seat. She would have to be RetConned anyway at this point. He might as well tell her. So he started explaining what was going on, adding the background from his job, till Rhiannon’s jaw was almost on the floor.  
“No wonder you never came to visit us,” she said, once she’d gotten over the shock.  
“I didn’t want to put you in any unnecessary danger.”  
“You could have told me you know. I would have supported you.”  
Ianto smiled grimly, knowing that soon enough, she wouldn’t remember any of it.  
“Are you serious though? Insect repellent can kill these things?”  
Ianto nodded, “according to Owen. He may be an obnoxious asshole, but I trust his judgement. He’s a good doctor.”  
“Right,” she said, standing up and grabbing one of Ianto’s cans off of the floor, “we’d better go and kill them then.”

It took all eight cans of Raid, and a fair few fights to get the Fae to leave their host, but eventually, they were all gone, and dead Fae littered the house, which were carefully picked up and stored in a preservation case by Tosh and Gwen. The whole place stank of Raid, and everyone hurried out into the garden, choking and coughing.  
Jack found Ianto staring at the house, “hey,” he said, “I got this before I left.” He held up Ianto’s suit, “it’s still in the packaging, so it should smell fine and, hopefully, not be too creased.”  
“Thanks,” said Ianto.  
“Why don’t you get changed into it, and then we can actually get married.”  
Ianto nodded and headed to get dressed.  
Jack smiled after him, before striding over to the venue organiser and suggesting that they got married outside in the garden to give the house time to air out.

Ianto came back into the garden, smoothing down his suit and looking around for Jack. Instead, he saw Rhiannon coming over to him.  
“Ianto,” she said, “I almost forgot to give you this.”  
She pulled a small box out of her bag and handed it over to him. He opened it, and gently lifted out a beautiful sapphire brooch.  
“I thought you might like something old and blue,” she said, smiling at him, “it was mum’s.”  
Ianto attached it to his lapel, “it’s beautiful Rhiannon,” he smiled at her, “thank you so much.”

Finally, only a couple of hours late, Jack and Ianto were standing in front of their friends and family, perhaps not exactly as planned, although they both felt that the picturesque garden felt more natural than the more formal room they had planned. They were at last getting married, despite the events of the day.

Thankfully, by the time the evening rolled around, and people were starting to get hungry, the house had sufficiently aired, so it was safe to go back inside. Everything for the reception had arrived and been set up, including the food, and soon people were eating, talking, and dancing, as though it was a perfectly normal wedding.

Later that evening, Jack and Ianto danced slowly together, Ianto resting his head on Jack’s shoulder.  
“I told you something would go wrong,” Ianto said.  
“And I told you we’d deal with it, which we did.”  
“Well, Owen, Rhiannon, and I did, you were too busy trying to kill the venue organiser.”  
“Did I?”  
Ianto nodded mock seriously, “so you’d better not have another wedding any time soon, because I don’t think she’ll forgive you easily.”  
“I wasn’t planning on it.”  
“Good,” Ianto sighed, “I’m glad everything is sorted out.”  
Jack chuckled, “You dealt with it perfectly. I would still say it wasn’t as much of a disaster as Gwen and Rhys’ wedding. At least we both still look presentable, so the pictures will look nice.”  
“True. Although it’s a miracle all of that fighting didn’t rip or stain your suit.”  
“What can I say, I’m just the best.”  
They danced in silence for a minute, until Ianto caught sight of Tosh handing his family drinks. Jack noticed him staring.  
“You know I had to do it.”  
Ianto nodded, “I know, but it was nice, briefly, to know that I didn’t have to hide anything anymore.”  
“I know. They’ll remember the wedding, just nothing to do with the Fae, so they’ll still remember that part of you.”  
“It’s for the best.”  
Jack smiled at him, “come on husband, let’s go to bed.”  
Ianto smiled back, “certainly.”


	7. The Honeymoon

The next morning, everyone was down for breakfast, looking a little worse for wear and very glad that the excitement of yesterday was over (Apart from Rhiannon and her family, who couldn’t remember a thing about the Fae).  
“It was a lovely idea to have the ceremony outside,” said Rhiannon to Ianto, who was practically falling asleep in his food, “what made you change your mind?”  
“Well, we just thought it would be nicer, because the sun was shining on everything. It was a, er, last minute decision.”  
“I’m glad you did, it would have been a shame to waste that beautiful garden.”  
Ianto made a non-committal sound, not wanting to accidently say something that might trigger any memories. Not that he didn’t trust the RetCon, but there was no point taking any chances. Jack smiled at him and squeezed his hand.  
He leant over and whispered in Ianto’s ear, “don’t worry, we’ll soon be far away from all this.”  
Ianto smiled back at him. He couldn’t wait to get away from it all for a while; uninterrupted holidays were a rarity in Torchwood, despite being slightly anxious that he didn’t have the foggiest idea where they were going to go. He loved Jack, but he wasn’t sure how much he trusted him to organise everything and he would have felt much easier if he knew the plans were up to his high standards. Still, it made Jack happy, so he didn’t want to complain too much.  
Tosh smiled at them and asked, “so do you still not know where you’re going?”  
Ianto shook his head, “no, he’s refusing to tell me,” he rolled his eyes, “he even went to the trouble of packing my suitcase for me, so I won’t have any clues, which I am a little concerned about.”  
“I told you, I have packed you everything you could possibly need or want.”  
“In your opinion. I suspect mine would differ rather.”  
Jack shrugged, “I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see, because you’re not opening it until we’ve arrived.”  
Ianto checked his watch, “speaking of which, we have to leave in twenty minutes, so we should probably get ourselves ready.”  
Jack nodded, and they excused themselves from the table.

Fifteen minutes later, they were on the front doorstep with their many bags, Ianto wondered what on earth Jack had packed, but at least there had to be something decent to wear in all of this. They were ready to say their goodbyes. Ianto, much to his annoyance, discovered that Jack had even gone to the trouble of locking his suitcases, so he couldn’t even peek at what was inside.  
Everyone gave them a hug and wished them a safe and happy trip. Rhiannon noticed with a smile that Ianto was still wearing the brooch she gave him yesterday, and he kept absentmindedly touching it, as though he was making sure that it was still there. She hoped that Jack would help him to open up and be less closed off. They were good for each other; she knew that from the first time Ianto introduced Jack to her. She was glad that Ianto had found someone he clearly felt so comfortable with. At least he would have someone he could share his problems and fears with, even if it wasn’t her anymore.

Soon enough, Jack and Ianto were in the taxi on the way to the airport, with their friends and family waving goodbye after them.  
Ianto heaved a sigh of relief and slumped back into his seat, he wasn’t used to being the centre of attention for so long, he much preferred to blend into the background, so he was hardly noticed, and he found it rather exhausting. Although, it probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he really didn’t get much sleep last night.  
Jack took his hand and Ianto leaned his head on Jack’s shoulder, already feeling his eyes closing. He felt content to just be alone with Jack, and even the stress of not knowing where they were going faded as he drifted off to sleep.

What felt like moments later, Jack was shaking him awake. He sat up with a start, looking around and wondering what was going on.  
“Hey, don’t worry, we’ve just arrived at the airport. Sorry to wake you, but I figured you probably didn’t want to be carried onto the plane.”  
Ianto shook his head, trying to shake the sleepiness out of it, before getting out of the car and following Jack, almost in a daze.  
“You’d be right,” he replied, a little too late.

They got into the airport, and Ianto looked up at the departures board, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. He found their flight and read the destination, pleased to finally know where they were going.  
“We’re going to Italy?” he asked.  
Jack nodded, grinning, “Lake Garda to be specific. What do you think?”  
Ianto smiled back at him, picturing blue lakes and bright sunshine, “I think it will be perfect.

It wasn’t long before they’d arrived at the villa they’d rented. Ianto had slept for most of the journey, so he was feeling surprisingly awake as he unpacked their bags from the boot of the hired car, despite the late hour.  
He took them into the light filled master bedroom and dumped them on the bed.  
He yelled to Jack, “can I have the keys to the suitcases now?”  
Jack threw them from where he was sitting in the other room and hit Ianto in the face, “sorry?” he yelled, not sounding sorry at all.  
Ianto picked them up from the floor and glared briefly at Jack, before unlocking the two suitcases that were his.  
He opened his smaller bag and found that it was mostly filled with pairs of slightly skimpy swimming trunks. He looked over at Jack with one eyebrow raised. Jack stood up and came over to him, grinning.  
“What? Don’t you like them? I bought them specially.”  
“You’d better just hope that I have some normal clothes in my other bag, or you are going to get it.”  
Ianto opened the second bag, which was, thankfully, filled with normal clothes, including a couple of suits.  
“See, I told you I’d packed everything necessary.”  
“I’d hardly call all of these necessary,” replied Ianto, gesturing at the many pairs of swimming trunks.  
Jack shrugged, “agree to disagree? And, seeing as you now have them, it would be a shame not to wear them…”  
Ianto pushed Jack playfully, “you are insufferable.”  
“You love me really, otherwise you wouldn’t have married me.”  
“True, true,” Ianto conceded.  
“So,” said Jack, holding out a practically scandalous pair of swimming trunks, “how about a late-night swim?”  
Ianto grabbed the trunks, “fine, as long as you’re wearing something equally revealing. I assume you’ve packed some equally atrocious pairs for yourself.”  
Jack grinned, “deal.”

The rest of their honeymoon was filled with wonderfully pleasant, lazy days, but by the end of the two weeks, though neither of them wanted to admit it, they were both eager to get back to work. Relaxation wasn’t the strong suite of either of them. Ianto was convinced that his filing would be completely destroyed, and it was the longest that Jack had been without any news from Torchwood since he first joined, many many years ago. So neither of them were too sad to say goodbye to Italy and go back home.


End file.
